Another U.S. corporation has left the United States to avoid paying its fair share of taxes. This time it's Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls. And it's a real slap in the face to the American taxpayer too. Here's how the NY Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin explains it.
In the fall of 2008, with General Motors and Chrysler on the precipice of bankruptcy, executives at the car parts supplier Johnson Controls flew to Washington. The company’s president testified before a Senate panel and implored lawmakers to bail out the auto industry.
“Speaking for our company, and, I am sure for all auto parts suppliers, we respectfully urge the members of this committee, and the Congress as a whole, to provide the financial support the automakers need at this critical time,” Keith Wandell, then the president of Johnson Controls, said, warning that the failure of even one automobile company would “implode” the supply chain and lead to broad job losses.
Congress approved a bailout plan worth almost $80 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, saving the automakers and, indirectly, suppliers like Johnson Controls. By 2010, with its business back on track, Johnson Controls doubled the pay of Stephen Roell, then its chief executive, to more than $15 million.
Despite the federal government’s rescue — and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks over the last several decades from states like Michigan and Wisconsin — Johnson Controls said on Monday it was renouncing its United States corporate citizenship by selling itself to Tyco International, based in Ireland, a deal struck in large part to reduce its tax bill, which it said should drop by about $150 million annually.
So, yeah, just another day in paradise if you're an ungrateful tax dodging corporate parasite.
If you're interested, at least 10% of S&P companies have already "left America" for tax purposes, which this Bloomberg article helps to explain.
- Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment